development of strategies to increase enrollment in clinical trials for children with cancer

Conditions: Brain and Central Nervous System Tumors; Childhood Germ Cell Tumor; Extragonadal Germ Cell Tumor; Leukemia; Liver Cancer; Lymphoma; Neuroblastoma; Ovarian Cancer; Psychosocial Effects of Cancer and Its Treatment; Sarcoma; Unspecified Childhood Solid Tumor, Protocol Specific

Summary: rationale: taking part in a clinical trial may help children with cancer receive more effective treatment. purpose: determine why patients who are eligible for protocols made available through the pediatric oncology group do not enroll in them, and develop strategies to increase enrollment on these clinical trials.

objectives: i. identify prospectively physician and patient factors associated with reasons why patients who are eligible for pediatric oncology group therapeutic protocols are not enrolled onto such studies. ii. provide information that may be used to develop intervention strategies to decrease barriers to patient enrollment, thus increasing enrollment in therapeutic protocols. outline: this is a case-control, multicenter study. case patients are stratified. stratum 1 comprises patients for whom there is an appropriate pediatric oncology group (pog) frontline therapeutic protocol that has not yet been submitted to, disapproved by, or approved by the institutional review board (irb). stratum 2 comprises patients for whom there is an appropriate pog frontline therapeutic protocol that has been approved by the irb. physicians complete an irb submission form for their patients on stratum 1. patients/parents on stratum 2 who refused enrollment and their primary physicians complete questionnaires that address reasons for nonenrollment. control patients/parents who consented to enrollment complete questionnaires that address reasons for enrollment. demographic information, including the size of the treating institution and the annual number of patients enrolled onto its protocols, is collected. additional demographic information regarding the patient and his or her family is collected. projected accrual: a total of 595 case patients (12 with soft tissue sarcoma, 34 with osteosarcoma, 19 with brain tumors, 32 with hodgkin's disease, 60 with non-hodgkin's lymphoma, 278 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 65 with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia, 56 with neuroblastoma, 14 with hepatoblastoma, and 25 with germ cell tumors) will be accrued for this study within 7 years. corresponding control patients will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility criteria:
disease characteristics: case or control patient clinically eligible for a pediatric oncology group (pog) frontline therapeutic protocol, whether or not the protocol was submitted to or approved by the physician's institutional review board case patients must not have enrolled on the pog frontline protocol due to decision by the physician or patient/parent control patients must have been enrolled on the pog frontline protocol ineligible if offered treatment on an in-house therapeutic protocol (institutional review board-approved) rather than the pog protocol patient characteristics: age: 21 and under performance status: not specified life expectancy: not specified hematopoietic: not specified hepatic: not specified renal: not specified prior concurrent therapy: biologic therapy: not specified chemotherapy: not specified endocrine therapy: not specified radiotherapy: not specified surgery: not specified

Keywords: localized osteosarcoma metastatic osteosarcoma recurrent childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia childhood infratentorial ependymoma childhood low-grade cerebral astrocytoma childhood supratentorial ependymoma childhood craniopharyngioma localized resectable neuroblastoma regional neuroblastoma disseminated neuroblastoma stage 4s neuroblastoma recurrent neuroblastoma stage i childhood liver cancer stage ii childhood liver cancer stage iii childhood liver cancer stage iv childhood liver cancer recurrent childhood liver cancer childhood hepatoblastoma stage i childhood lymphoblastic lymphoma stage ii childhood lymphoblastic lymphoma stage iii childhood lymphoblastic lymphoma stage iv childhood lymphoblastic lymphoma recurrent childhood lymphoblastic lymphoma childhood central nervous system germ cell tumor recurrent childhood acute myeloid leukemia recurrent osteosarcoma unspecified childhood solid tumor, protocol specific childhood germ cell tumor untreated childhood acute myeloid leukemia and other myeloid malignancies untreated childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia childhood acute myeloid leukemia in remission childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in remission stage ii childhood hodgkin lymphoma stage i childhood hodgkin lymphoma stage iii childhood hodgkin lymphoma stage iv childhood hodgkin lymphoma recurrent/refractory childhood hodgkin lymphoma nonmetastatic childhood soft tissue sarcoma metastatic childhood soft tissue sarcoma recurrent childhood soft tissue sarcoma extragonadal germ cell tumor childhood high-grade cerebral astrocytoma childhood oligodendroglioma childhood choroid plexus tumor childhood meningioma localized unresectable neuroblastoma psychosocial effects of cancer and its treatment stage i childhood small noncleaved cell lymphoma stage i childhood large cell lymphoma stage ii childhood small noncleaved cell lymphoma stage ii childhood large cell lymphoma stage iii childhood small noncleaved cell lymphoma stage iii childhood large cell lymphoma stage iv childhood small noncleaved cell lymphoma stage iv childhood large cell lymphoma recurrent childhood small noncleaved cell lymphoma recurrent childhood large cell lymphoma untreated childhood brain stem glioma recurrent childhood brain stem glioma untreated childhood supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor recurrent childhood supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor untreated childhood cerebellar astrocytoma recurrent childhood cerebellar astrocytoma recurrent childhood cerebral astrocytoma untreated childhood medulloblastoma recurrent childhood medulloblastoma untreated childhood visual pathway and hypothalamic glioma recurrent childhood visual pathway and hypothalamic glioma newly diagnosed childhood ependymoma recurrent childhood ependymoma childhood teratoma childhood malignant testicular germ cell tumor childhood malignant ovarian germ cell tumor childhood extragonadal germ cell tumor recurrent childhood malignant germ cell tumor childhood atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor